Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, (born October 26, 1919, Tehrān, Iran—died July 27, 1980, Cairo, Egypt), shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, who maintained a pro-Western foreign policy and fostered economic development in Iran.

Mohammad Reza was the eldest son of Reza Shah Pahlavi, an army officer who became the ruler of Iran and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. Mohammad Reza was educated in Switzerland and returned to Iran in 1935. In 1941 the Soviet Union and Great Britain, fearing that the shah would cooperate with Nazi Germany to rid himself of their tutelage, occupied Iran and forced Reza Shah into exile. Mohammad Reza then replaced his father on the throne (September 16, 1941).

In the early 1950s a struggle for control of the Iranian government developed between the shah and Mohammad Mosaddeq, a zealous Iranian nationalist. In March 1951 Mosaddeq secured passage of a bill in the Majles (parliament) to nationalize the vast British petroleum interests in Iran. Mosaddeq’s power grew rapidly, and by the end of April Mohammad Reza had been forced to appoint Mosaddeq premier. A two-year period of tension and conflict followed. In August 1953 the shah tried to dismiss Mosaddeq but was himself forced to leave the country by Mosaddeq’s supporters. Several days later, however, Mosaddeq’s opponents, with the covert support and assistance of the United States and the United Kingdom, restored Mohammad Reza to power.

Tehrān, Iran: 1953 riots and coupThis newsreel clip discusses the anti-shah demonstrations that occurred in Tehrān, Iran, in August 1953, which were followed by a coup that deposed Premier Mohammad Mosaddeq and restored Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to power.Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library

Under Mohammad Reza, the nationalization of the oil industry was nominally maintained, although in 1954 Iran entered into an agreement to split revenues with a newly formed international consortium that was responsible for managing production. With U.S. assistance Mohammad Reza then proceeded to carry out a national development program, called the White Revolution, that included construction of an expanded road, rail, and air network, a number of dam and irrigation projects, the eradication of diseases such as malaria, the encouragement and support of industrial growth, and land reform. He also established a literacy corps and a health corps for the large but isolated rural population. In the 1960s and ’70s the shah sought to develop a more independent foreign policy and established working relationships with the Soviet Union and eastern European nations.

The White Revolution solidified domestic support for the shah, but he faced continuing political criticism from those who felt that the reforms did not move far or fast enough and religious criticism from those who believed westernization to be antithetical to Islam. Opposition to the shah himself was based upon his autocratic rule, corruption in his government, the unequal distribution of oil wealth, forced westernization, and the activities of Savak (the secret police) in suppressing dissent and opposition to his rule. These negative aspects of the shah’s rule became markedly accentuated after Iran began to reap greater revenues from its petroleum exports beginning in 1973. Widespread dissatisfaction among the lower classes, the Shīʿite clergy, the bazaar merchants, and students led in 1978 to the growth of support for the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shīʿite religious leader living in exile in Paris. Rioting and turmoil in Iran’s major cities brought down four successive governments; on January 16, 1979, the shah left the country, and Khomeini assumed control. Although the shah did not abdicate, a referendum resulted in the declaration on April 1, 1979, of an Islamic republic in Iran. The shah traveled to Egypt, Morocco, The Bahamas, and Mexico before entering the United States on October 22, 1979, for medical treatment of lymphatic cancer. Two weeks later Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehrān and took hostage more than 50 Americans, demanding the extradition of the shah in return for the hostages’ release. Extradition was refused, but the shah later left for Panama and then Cairo, where he was granted asylum by President Anwar el-Sadat.

The shah had two marriages that ended in divorce when they failed to produce a male heir to the throne. In October 1960 a third wife, Farah Diba, gave birth to the crown prince, Reza.